LA Salle and the Discovery of the Great West

Robert Cavelier de La Salle (1643-1687) is among the most legendary explorers of the New World, most well-known for claiming the entire Louisiana Territory for France in 1682. Only two years later, while searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, he landed in east Texas where he and his men were ravaged by disease, weakened by hard labor, even gored by buffalo. In 1687, in the desolate country between the Trinity and Brazos rivers, La Salle was murdered by his own men; his body was never found. First published in 1869 and long out of print, this is the vivid, richly detailed story of that final grim expedition told my America's foremost historian.